A liquid crystal display device is constructed while a liquid crystal display element is sandwiched between a pair of glass substrates. By utilizing the features such as thinness, light weight, and low power consumption, the liquid crystal display device is widely used in a car navigation, an electronic book, a photo frame, industrial equipment, a television, a personal computer, a smart phones, and a tablet terminal, which are indispensable for everyday life and business. In these applications, liquid crystal display devices of various modes relating to the electrode arrangement and design of a substrate are studied in order to change optical characteristics of a liquid crystal layer.
For example, a vertical alignment (VA) mode, such as a multi-domain vertical alignment (MVA) mode, in which liquid crystal molecules having negative anisotropy of dielectric constant are vertically aligned with respect to a substrate surface, an in-plane switching (IPS) mode in which the liquid crystal molecules having positive or negative anisotropy of dielectric constant are horizontally aligned with respect to the substrate surface to apply a lateral electric field to the liquid crystal layer, and a fringe field switching (FFS) mode can be cited as a recent display system of the liquid crystal display device.
Among others, the FFS mode is a liquid crystal mode that is widely used in smartphones and tablet terminals in recent years. An FFS mode liquid crystal display device is disclosed, the FFS mode liquid crystal display device including: a first and second transparent insulating substrates that are disposed opposite each other with a predetermined distance with a liquid crystal layer containing a plurality of liquid crystal molecules interposed therebetween; pluralities of scanning signal lines and data signal lines arranged in a matrix on the first transparent substrate so as to restrict a unit pixel; a thin-film transistor provided at an intersection of the scanning signal line and the data signal line; a counter electrode disposed in each unit pixel and made of a transparent conductor; and a pixel electrode disposed in each unit pixel so as to be insulated from the counter electrode, the pixel electrode made of a transparent conductor including pluralities of upper slits and lower slits arranged at a predetermined inclination such that a symmetrical shape is formed with a long side of the pixel as a center (for example, see Patent Literature 1).
A method in which polarity inversion drive is performed by changing potential at the auxiliary capacitance line corresponding to the scanning signal line after a selection period of the scanning signal line is disclosed as a method for reducing power consumption of an active matrix type liquid crystal display device (for example, see Patent Literature 2).